We asked some of the most talented folks in the community to talk to us about projects they’ve worked on that they still think about, projects that really meant something. Have you had such an experience? Are you looking for inspiration for your next project? Check out the stories below, they are exciting, entertaining, and most importantly – inspiring.

Hugo Ximello-Salido

As part of my ongoing effort to celebrate and explore Mexican culture through art, I have been greatly inspired by Muxe – one-of-a-kind individuals who are assigned male at birth but grow up to dress and behave in ways traditionally associated with women. While there is some overlap with the transgender community, Muxe exist within a particular cultural context in Oaxaca, Mexico. They are not transgender women, as they don’t identify as women; they identify as Muxe. The Zapotec culture, concentrated in Oaxaca, is dominantly Catholic today and yet accepts Muxe as a vibrant and even necessary part of the community. Read more>>

Jay James

The most meaningful project that I’ve worked on is our latest project: ‘Antidote – Jay James (feat. Zarutt Malai)’ It just released yesterday on September 1st, 2022 and can be found in all online stores now; Spotify, Apple Music, Itunes, Google Play, Amazon Music, Youtube Music ~ everywhere. This is our third release as our band ‘Immortality Projects’ begins gearing up for our world tour. Read more>>

Dï Thomas

The most meaningful project I have worked on would be directing, writing, filming, and producing my first feature film “Seen.” It was originally written as a short film, a sequel to my first short film “See Me.” A film covering the struggles of the main character Miller transitioning (FTM) with not only himself, but with his relationships with others. Read more>>

Uncommon People

The most meaningful project we’ve worked on thus far is this band, Uncommon People. Having all had our solo journeys prior to meeting each other, there were already individuals relationships with music. With this comes different taste, textures, habits and visions of what encompasses a musician lifestyle. However, in the recent years we’ve been able to align our ideas and expectations. Read more>>

Josh Garcia

I’ve worked on quite a few that have meant a lot and left an impact on me, but the honest answer is always the project I’m right in the middle of. Lately, that’s been a series of three albums that I’ve been writing with my band, Grandma Mousey. We’ve previously released two EPs that are a mixed bag of indie rock tunes, but these new albums are going to be much more cohesive in their themes and styles. Read more>>

Corinne Cotereau

Hello again, Last time we spoke I was writing a book. I didn’t mention it because I wasn’t sure where it would lead me. Expressing myself has always been easier with colors than words. Well, after a tremendous amount of work and many months later, my book is going to be published. Les Éditions Albin Michel, a big publisher in France, will release “Providence Canyon” in France in April 2023. Read more>>

David Coblitz

For some years I’ve specialized primarily in creating photographic work that helps people heal & feel less stressed. This is based upon research in hospital design on what works best to reduce stress in patients & staff. Any project that meets this goal is meaningful to me, but one example is the installation by Louer Facility Planning of a set of my large biophilic prints in the Anderson Hospital cardiac catheterization lab in Maryville,, Illinois. Read more>>

Suly Florian

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on has been leading an art program with a school here in Houston named AAMA, short for The Association of Advancement of Mexican Americans. This program, synchronously named Casa de Phoenix (House of the Phoenix), houses young men ages 12-17 whom have either been displaced from their home due to hardship, or have had hardships in their lives and are at risk of dropping out of high school, and rehabilitate them back on track to graduate and go to college. Read more>>

 Judith Hill Levenson

I have been doing a 40 Over 40 project that has now translated into the Beyond 40 Revolution where I have been photographing women who are 40-70+ years old and giving them the Judith Hill Photography (JHP) experience. I have set out to empower each of these women to see in them what I see and celebrate the confidence and self-discovery which occurs when you find your own power and grace staring back at you. Read more>>

Sebastian Sandu

Living in Romania, for many years I worked in advertising. It was a creative job, but it felt like I was lying to myself and the public due to the profile of the job. So when my creative spirit got burned out, I decided to be true to my audience and most important to myself. Read more>>

Mayce Keeler

My meaningful project has not been completed. It is a growing compendium of a visual dictionary, where animals, beasts, humans, and the melding of all three give way to a symbolism and allegories that are both continuous and nonsequential. Growing with these symbols is a conduit to explore a vast array of personal experiences and sentiments. Read more>>

Nerly Fertil

I would say that all of my projects are meaningful but the most recent meaningful project is a song called “Before I Fall”. It’s written by the featured artist, Stella. It’s meaningful to me because It’s my first female collaboration and the first time I’ve released a song that I didn’t write. Also, the message of the song is about my season in life. The process was long and challenging but after all the studio sessions, planning and even the lack of confidence in myself, we released something beautiful. Read more>>

 Lucrecia Suarez

Love the question :) A couple of years ago when I was working with ION Television, one of it segments was going to be dedicated to a non profit organization that helps kids who have aged out of foster care. I was honored to give these wonderful young ladies a makeover for their interview. It was such an impactful experience because of the stories they shared and how positive and optimistic these kids were. Read more>>

Barbie Termini

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on is my Children’s Book , The Wonderful Way You Were Made. I wrote this book because when I started IVF in 2019 and had my baby I felt that the IVF community was still underground and not very well acknowledged. I searched Amazon and book stores for a children’s book about IVF because I wanted to have something as unique and special as my infertility/IVF journey to help me express to my daughter just how much I love her and how hard I worked to have her! Read more>>

Lena Volkova

My most meaningful project, without a doubt, was the conversion of our cosplay meetup group into an arts education nonprofit. I know this probably sounds like the most DC answer ever, but establishing a nonprofit and being able to give directly back to the community that has given so much to me personally, has been easily one of my favorite accomplishments. Read more>>

Traveling Troy

A friend contacted me a while back asking me to collaborate on a few projects. He was recently coming out of a music hiatus after having been dealing with being a nurse during recent years. He is a guitarist/producer who unbeknownst to him reached out to me when I was unsure what was next for me as far as a career path. Read more>>

Cort Carpenter

I’ve hit the 10-year mark of living in Nashville, and I have done a ton during that those years that I’m proud of. Actually, everything I have done has led to my current project that is super meaningful to me. My latest project is in the midst of being rolled out and released this Fall. It’s my first full length album (10 songs) that I have released since being here. I have released a ton of singles, and 4 7 song EP’s, but this is my first album. Read more>>

Courtney Hill

The cookbook has always been a dream of mine and I guess I’ve been writing it as long as I’ve had my blog. It was always a distant dream of “some day I’ll write a cookbook.” I actually sat down and wrote the context a couple years ago and in the early stages of the COVID shut down I just decided to send it to any publisher that was accepting unsolicited cookbook proposals. I got a lot of no’s but then I got one yes. That was the motivation I needed to really give it a shot. Read more>>

 Jen and Scott Smith

We’ve both been huge fans of best-selling author Lee Child and his iconic Jack Reacher character for decades. He came to one of our gigs in the 2000s after we sent him a fan letter, and it turned out he was already a fan of ours and had all of our music. We were all delighted by the coincidence. Years later (2018) we got together with him to try songwriting together. Read more>>

Qamil Wright

The project that I’m currently working on is the most meaningful for me. In the last two years, I’ve gone through some major life changes including losing both of my maternal grandparents, turning 40, surviving a horrible case of Covid 19 coupled with double pneumonia and having a baby. Between grief and postpartum depression, it’s been difficult for me to find inspiration and feel motivated to be creative. Read more>>

Kenneth Holley

Asar The Eternal is my recent recording project. I came up with this concept around 2020, but I was not quite sure what it would sound like. At first, I wanted this to be an alternative rock project based around my creative concept of Asar. Most know him as the Kemetic Deity named Osiris. Read more>>

Vannessa Circe

I have been working on an initiative called Unbounded World since the year of 2015, with the purpose of strengthening conscious understanding and balance by communicating cultural and environmental themes through art, science and writing. We aim to help ensure preservation and fairness in the treatment of the natural world and of indigenous cultures. Read more>>

Timeca Seretti

For me the most meaningful projects have been my own. I recently wrapped my fourth short film. As a struggling actor I have found that I’ve had to develop other skill sets outside of my wheel house. I’m a writer, a director and I produce. A lot of this business is to sit and wait. I’m not too good at doing either, so I create. Read more>>

 Kaelyn Provost

My series titled “Looking for Illume” has been the most meaningful project I’ve worked on so far. This series is still in progress and since I am currently developing my second body of work, I’ll go into detail about the first 5 artworks. When working on the first 5 pieces, I intended to include more figures and portraits as the subject matter. Read more>>

Lisa Neher

It’s hard to choose just one project! An impactful experience that comes to mind is the creation of No One Saves the Earth from Us But Us, a major, 35-minute song cycle about the climate change crisis. Mezzo-soprano Quinn Patrick Ankrum and pianist Elizabeth Avery reached out to me in the fall of 2020 with the vision to create a large-scale song cycle drawing attention to the climate crisis. Read more>>

Ray Flanagan

So far, the most meaningful project I’ve worked on has been my monthly singles, which I started self-producing in late 2020. I have been consistently putting out 2 songs a month for almost 2 years. I started doing it because of being home during the pandemic and it has turned into a timeline of my vantage point as I have grown, learned, and changed over the time I’ve been doing it. They can be found on rayflanagan.bandcamp.com and all streaming services. Read more>>

Ashley Rose Moore

This is such a hard question because I have worked on so many wonderful projects that have been near and dear to my heart. I have captured countless love stories and a few special projects for Strike Magazine Athens, but I think my most meaningful project to date has to be my very first styled shoot. Read more>>

Ashley Andrighetti

I recently started making cremation jewelry, but I prefer the term memorial jewelry as it symbolizes more than just the ashes of the deceased loved one. Recently I was contacted by a wonderful woman asking if I could make a piece of jewelry with her father’s ashes in it. Read more>>

Liz Harris

I like to paint people! With people, you can tell a story. It adds a narrative to the painting that helps me stay interested and hopefully, the viewer as well. I usually have a surface story or universally shared experience that I am depicting. Its apparent in the situation the subject is in, their gestures and expressions. The hidden narrative takes a little to unravel. Read more>>

Nicole Leth

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on so far would have to be a project where I put a series of 400 billboards up around the country in September 2019 in support of Suicide Prevention Month. This was such a special moment for me because I had only just put up my first ever anonymous affirmation billboard a few months before and it was so surreal to see my one small, anonymous act of kindness grow into something that reached every corner of the country and was experienced by millions of people. Read more>>

Nader Elchaar

I just finished a mental health project that is extremely personal to me, it’s probably my darkest work yet. This project is a visual showcase of the struggles people face with depression, suicidal thoughts, anxiety, and body dysmorphia. This project series allowed me to showcase my past personal struggles in a unique and creative way. Read more>>

Kia Black

I’m currently working on multiple projects that are all made from recycled fibers. Textile waste occupies nearly 5% of all landfill space. I use yarn scraps, ribbons, and fabric to create new yarn that myself and other artists use to create new works of art. Most people typically use the yarn in weavings or knitting. I have also been using old clothing that no longer can be worn due to holes, rips, or stains and using those materials as fabric in sewing projects. My newest creation is making my own fabric from yarn scraps. Read more>>

Monica Maldonado

The most meaningful project I have done is the Uvalde 21 Portrait Murals. This tragedy impacted a small town that is approx 82% Latino. This was the deadlist mascarre in Texas against children. This project was emotionally and physically overwhelming. Part of the process was learning about the children and spending time with the familyies. There’s a level of trauma that’s absorbed through that engangemet. Read more>>

Molly Dakota

Kamaya Walker

The most meaningful project that I have worked on to date is my short film called “It’s That Season”. It is a simple story about the progression of seasonal depression. As someone who has experienced seasonal depression and seen it on my family and friends, it felt like a story that needed to be told. From the outside looking in, seasonal depression can look lazy. It can look dirty. It can even look scary. Read more>>

Tanaya Farr

The most meaningful project I have worked on has been creating and writing our Bonaventure Cemetery Tour Experience at Junket/US Ghost Adventures. This particular cemetery has always meant a lot to me as my family is buried there. As I began to research the historical markers and stories of the many people that go are interred at Bonaventure, the project began to take on a different meaning entirely. Read more>>

Kalichi Lamar

One of the most meaningful projects I worked on was during my first opportunity in a new career. I designed a mosaic mural on canvas that was completed collaboratively with cancer patients. The backstory begins here … Read more>>

Tanesha Pitt

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on was a portrait of my late grandfather, “Papa”. It was the most difficult portrait I’ve created. For the first time in my career, I was not just the creator, I became my own client. My grandfather fell ill on Christmas Day. My family and I took care of him around the clock for three months. Read more>>

Kelton Holman

I recently just finished up working on a new film. The film is called, “Jones Plantation”, The film is based on slaves who are growing restless and rebellious, and attempts to crush the resistance by brute force have only made things worse. The owner, Mr. Jones, fears not only for losing his plantation, but also his life. Read more>>

TROY NōKA

The most meaningful projects I’ve worked on lately have been Doja Cat’s “Planet Her” and just 3 weeks ago Beyonce & Madonna’s Queens Remix of “Break My Soul”. Read more>>